付録-4 国際会議講演資料
付録4-1 基調講演(1)
Dr. McEwan、「Argo計画をはじめとする全球海洋観測システム(GOOS)の発展とその気候予測への貢献」
Development of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS including the Argo program and its contribution to climate prediction
Dr Angus McEwan, Chairman, Intergovernmental Committee for GOOS
The world is entering an era in which science and technology can deliver tools to detail the physical status of the oceans three-dimensionally in time. This opens the possibility of deriving useful information, products and forecasts of the marine environment on regional and global scales on a continuous, near real-time operational basis. An immediate benefit is the improved prediction of climatic variability and change, for which the heat transport and storage of the upper ocean is known to be a major controlling factor.
Critical to realising this capability is the creation of a planned and coordinated ocean observing system (GOOS) of truly global extent. Such a system is presently being implemented under the guidance of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, WMO and UNEP.
Autonomous subsurface drifters or floats are a new tool of great potential value in the realisation of GOOS. Argo is an ambitious international program to deploy thousands of these drifters in the world oceans, transmitting information in unprecedented detail on thermal and salinity structure as well as transport.
This address will describe the main concepts and elements of the GOOS and its connections with international efforts in climate prediction. It will outline the Argo program and present some of the results emerging from pilot studies of the program. It will conclude with examples of some of the climate-related products being derived in Australia which use ocean data and information for national economic decision-making.
